Adjustable headgear



April 27, 1965 J. :FEKETE 3,179,953

ADJUSTABLE HEADGEAR Filed NOV. 5, 1962 INVENTOR.

JOSEPH FEKETE ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,179,953 ADJUSTABLE HEADGEAR Joseph Fekete, Virginia Garment Company, 510 N. 17th St., Richmond, Va. Filed Nov. 5, 1962, Ser. No. 235,361 1 Claim. (Cl. 2-197) The invention relates to adjustable headgear, and more particularly to headgear having a two-piece headband, one headband piece being so resiliently connected to the body of the headgear as to cause its ends to slide along and behind the adjacent ends of the other headband piece, thus adjusting the headband size to fit varying head sizes.

Hat stores, and thus hat manufacturers, face at least three distinct problems in the sale of headgear such as hats, berets, caps and helmets. First, numerous styles, colors, materials and sizes of headgear must be carried in inventory by the hat store, and manufactured by the manufacturer, to meet the demands of the purchasing public. Secondly, since the purchased headgear must accurately fit the head of the purchaser to present the desired appearance without discomfort, considerable time may be consumed by the purchaser in obtaining a proper fit, and occasionally after purchasing the headgear the purchaser will decide that the fit is not proper, and return the headgear for another size. Thirdly, growing children quickly outgrow one size, and although usually one size is correct for one season, occasionally new headgear must be obtained even before a season ends. These and other problems, more thoroughly discussed in Milstein US. Patent No. 2,869,134, lead to customer dissatisfaction, and the industry for years has attempted to devise a satisfactory solution.

One solution is to make the headgear size adjustable, thereby reducing the inventory that must be carried by both. the store and the manufacturer, and reducing purchaser dissatisfaction. Many adjustable headgear constructions have been devised. Usually though, such adjustable headgear constructions unduly complicate manufacture of an otherwise simple item; and result in a bulky and unsightly product. Thus purchasers have been reluctant to accept such constructions, and adjustable headgear has not yet come into widespread use.

The present invention resides in an adjustable headgear which is both simple to manufacture and neat and trim in appearance.

The preferred form of the invention, shown in the drawings as being incorporated in a cap, comprises a two-piece headband, one headband piece attached to and lying adjacent the back portion of the cap, and the other headband piece attached to and lying adjacent the front portion of the cap. The end portions of the back piece of the headband terminate in tongues, each of which are received by and may reciprocate in a sleeve provided at the adjacent end portion of the front piece of the headband. A resilient member is provided at each side of the cap and attached to the back headband piece to urge each tongue into the associated sleeve of the front portion of the headband. These resilient members may stretch, permitting the tongues to slide in the sleeves, elongating the headband, and providing an adjustable headgear.

This preferred form of the invention is illustrated in the drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side perspective view of a cap embodying the invention with the resilient member contracted;

FIGURE 2 is a side perspective view of the cap with the resilient member stretched;

FIGURE 3 is a bottom perspective view of the cap with one tongue portion removed from its sleeve;

FIGURE 4 is a bottom perspective view of the cap with one tongue portion removed from its sleeve and turned outward to expose the resilient member; and

FIGURE 5 is a detail view taken on lines 5-5 of FIGURE 4.

FIFIGURE 6 is a sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of While the invention is further described herein with respect to a cap, it is to be understood that it may be used to advantage in many other types of headgear, such as a helmet.

The cap 1 shown in the drawings comprises a crown portion 2 formed of soft fabric panels and a reinforced or stiffened visor portion 3. The crown portion comprises a crown panel 4, side panels 5 and a back panel 6 secured together by stitching 7, preferably through piping 8, and to the reinforced visor 3. Within the cap, and underlying the crown panel and the back panel are soft mesh fabric panels 11. As is customary, a snap fastener 12 attaches the front of the cap to the top of the visor.

A back headband section 13, preferably formed of leather or a plastic fabric laminate, is attached to the back panel 6 and its associated mesh panel 11 by stitching 14 with a rim reinforcing leather or cardboard strip or member 15 backing the fabric and mesh panels and giving body to the edge of the cap. Both ends of the back headband section are reduced in width to a tongue portion 16, which tongues are slightly wider than the reinforcing strip 15 incorporated therein for body and stiffness.

A front headband section 17, also preferably formed of leather or a plastic fabric laminate, is attached to the visor and side panels .by stitching 18, with a sized coarse fabric strip (not shown) backing the fabric for reinforcement. At least the end portions of the front headband section 17 are folded over and also secured by stitching 18 to form sleeves 19 for receiving tongues 16, the tongues freely sliding within the sleeves. Preferably the mouth of each sleeve is adjacent the edge of the visor at the back corner of the visor as shown, to position the sleeves and contained tongues at the side portions of the forehead just in front of the temples of the wearer, rather than elsewhere in regions which would tend to be uncomfortable to the wearer.

Two resilient members 21, preferably formed of elastic tape, are provided, one on each side of the visor 3. One end of each resilient member is secured, preferably by a staple 22, to the folded and sewn base edge of side panel 5, adjacent to, and preferably about one inch from, the back corner of the visor and mouth of sleeve 19. The other end of each resilient member is secured to the bottom edge of the back headband section, and to the reinforcing strip 15, preferably by a staple 23, to urge tongue 16 snugly into sleeve 19. It has been found in actual practice that a resilient member about two inches long, providing a free length between staples of from one to one and one-half inches, functions properly (1) to comfortably grip the wearers head during substantially all of the positions of adjustment afforded by yielding of resilient members 21, (2) to provide a maximum comfortable adjustment of from one-half to three-quarters of an inch on each side of the cap between the contracted position (designated by a in FIG. 1) and the stretched position (designated by b in FIG. 2) of the headband thus providing an adjustment in total headband length of from one to one-half inches, and (3) to cause only a slight and controlled fold in the side panel adjacent the contracted resilient member. By this arrangement, only two short resilient members, one on each side of the cap, are required to provide a wide degree of adjustment in the headband. Also by this arrangement, the inner side of the headband and of the reinforcing strip cushion the wearers head from staples 22 and 23 and from compression, contraction and snagging by resilient member 21.

By placing the mouth of each sleeve adjacent the back corner of the visor, and attaching the resilient member adjacent the back corner of the visor, the folds in the crown portion caused by the resilient member when it is contracted or partially contracted, as shown in FIGURE 1, lie adjacent to or in the natural and desired fold of the crown portion over the visor, and this natural fold tends to conceal the folds caused by the resilient member, providing the desired appearance without any added panel or member being required to conceal the folds caused by the resilient member. Also this natural fold tends to conceal the added thickness of the headband due to the sleeves and their contained tongues. In short, the very economy and simplicity of structure required to provide the adjustable headgear of the present invention contributes a neat and trim appearance to the finished cap.

In manufacturing the cap, first the crown and visor portions are assembled and sewn together. The fabric panels are easy to manipulate and sew in this stage of assembly for there is no force tending to deform the cap being assembled from any configuration in which it is placed. Finally, after all the other elements of the cap have been assembled, the resilient members 21 are stapled into the cap and the cap folded into its finished condition, completing assembly of the cap. In other words, it is not necessary to work on the cap after the resilient members have been secured in the cap, which of course, would be difiicult to do since the resilient members would oppose any deformation of the cap during further assembly. Thus the adjustable headgear of the present invention is also simple to manufacture.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been described above, it is to be understood that various changes within the skill of the art may be made in the details of the adjustable headgear herein described without departing from or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention. For these reasons the scope of the invention is tit 4 set forth, not by the preferred embodiment described above, but by the following claim.

I claim:

A headgear of the character described comprising a visor, a crown portion, a headband structure, and a pair of elastic strips; said crown portion comprising a top panel, a pair of opposed side panels secured to said top panel and said visor, and a back panel secured to said top panel and said side panels; said headband structure comprising a front headband section which is secured to said visor and within said panels, and a back headband section which is secured to said back panel; said front headband section being provided with a sleeve at each end thereof the rear open ends of which are disposed at the back corners of said visor, and the ends of said back headband section being provided with forwardly extending tongues which are slidably disposed in said sleeves; said elastic strips being disposed between said headband structure and the side and back panels of said crown with the forward ends thereof secured to said side panels adjacent the rear open ends of said sleeves and the rear ends thereof secured to said back headband section.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,865,027 12/58 Shapiro 2197 2,913,730 11/59 Schlesinger 2-195 FOREIGN PATENTS 649,559 9/28 France. 290,058 5/28 Great Britain. 404,637 1/34 Great Britain.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Examiner. 

